Sunday, March 28, 2010

In Arizona Republic, James DePreist Says of Conducting Beethoven: 'I look for the old depth and breadth of expression'


[James De Preist, Fanfare Magazine, November-December 1995]

On March 1, 2010 AfriClassical.com announced a complete revision of its page on James DePreist, the world-famous African American Conductor who is Director of Conducting & Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School in New York City. Maestro DePreist was born in Philadelphia in 1936 and is the nephew of the renowned contralto Marian Anderson. He is quoted today in an article about conducting the works of Beethoven:

The Arizona Republic
by Richard Nilsen
March 28, 2010
A hero's music
“You can hear the problem in many modern performances of Beethoven. The conductor no longer believes in the grand ideas and falls back instead on the music's obvious rhythm and drive. There's a great divide between the conductors who performed before World War II and those who came after.
'I look for the old depth and breadth of expression that was there and can be retrieved if we listen to the right master,' conductor James DePreist says. 'And most of the right masters are dead.'" [James DePreist is profiled at AfriClassical.com]





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